Driftpile man shot dead after threatening ‘to kill police’

Agitated and armed with a rifle, a Driftpile man with a lengthy criminal record was shot dead by police following a lengthy standoff during which he fired numerous shots. The incident began Nov. 19, 2010 when Lake Shore Regional Police Services were called after Bernard Emery Giroux Jr., 37, and his girlfriend arrived at his parents’ house. They were arguing.

Agitated and armed with a rifle, a Driftpile man with a lengthy criminal record was shot dead by police following a lengthy standoff during which he fired numerous shots.

The incident began Nov. 19, 2010 when Lake Shore Regional Police Services were called after Bernard Emery Giroux Jr., 37, and his girlfriend arrived at his parents’ house. They were arguing.

Giroux fired a rifle into the air and took the gun into the house on Driftpile First Nation, 74 kilometres west of Slave Lake.

Seven people were inside, including Giroux’s parents, girlfriend, daughter and niece. They later left, leaving Giroux alone.

Before Giroux’s father left, he heard his son say, ‘“The cops won’t take me; I’m going to kill myself — I am sick and tired of being in trouble and here I am again; I’m not going to jail, I’ll just take my own life.’”

The new details about the events leading to Giroux’s killing were outlined Thursday in a fatality inquiry report by provincial court Judge Morris Golden.

Giroux is described in the report as “a skilled person who did not want to surrender.”

A negotiator with the emergency response team had about 31 conversations with Giroux before he was shot.

Golden said RCMP followed all procedures in attempting to bring the situation to a peaceful resolution. He did not make any recommendations for preventing similar deaths.

“Having heard the various descriptions it was as if Mr. Giroux brought this to the conclusion he desired,” the judge wrote.

When two police officers responded to the house Nov. 19, they heard a gunshot. They returned to their vehicles and called the RCMP’s northern Alberta operational communication centre.

Giroux told an officer “he better bring an army because he was going to kill police,” the report says

Giroux left the house from time to time carrying the rifle. He fired several rounds “in the directions of the police positions” and fired several shots at a robot unit that contained cameras and a Taser.

The report says the team’s unit commander eventually authorized a “takedown” because Giroux “was presenting lethal force and there appeared to be no other viable options available” to contain him.

About 9:30 a.m., Giroux, carrying the rifle, came out onto the deck of the house.An officer shot at him. The first shot missed. A second round hit Giroux in the chest.

Suggestions were made at the fatality inquiry on behalf of Giroux’s family on how the incident could have ended peacefully, including contacting elders or community members to assist in defusing the situation, permitting family members to assist with communicating with Giroux, and developing a list of mental health professionals to assist.

But the RCMP negotiator involved in the incident said he would not recommend those proposals, and the judge said no witnesses at the inquiry could propose any recommendations.

A fatality inquiry does not lay blame, but makes recommendations to prevent deaths in similar situations.

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